Stories by Jim Hightower

There's a crime wave underway in America, but the Powers That Be are getting sore necks from looking the other way. When it comes to robbing us blind, the Armani-clad criminals in corporate boardrooms have it over the hoods on the street. While burglary and robbery cost U.S. taxpayers $3.8 billion annually, securities traders alone cream four times that amount from their clients in fraudulent deals every year -- and securities fraud is small potatoes.

"A group of Republican attorneys general have devised a sneaky way to take secret campaign contributions from tobacco companies, high-tech firms, gun makers, and other giant corporations, promising not to file big lawsuits against them."

"There are laws in our country that proclaim to human criminals 'three strikes and you're out' -- why not for corporations? Each year, hundreds of doctors, lawyers and other professionals have their licenses permanently revoked -- why not corporations? People who murder are removed from society -- why not corporations?" A fiery selection from Jim Hightower's new book, "If the Gods Had Meant Us to Vote, They Would Have Given Us Candidates."

"More and more cranky rich folks are literally lifting themselves above us riff-raff in the slow lanes of life by buying personal helicopters to take them to and fro their suburban enclaves. Of course, it's pricey, but what's money good for if you can't look down at the rabble below?"

"Three years ago John Deutch -- head honcho of the CIA -- transferred some 200 of America's secret documents onto computers that he had in his home. But was Deutch prosecuted for reckless endangerment of our secrets, as any other agent would have been? Hardly."

Plain old "hypocrite" just doesn't do the job when describing the audacity of George W. Bush, who has suddenly started painting himself as "Mr. Green, The Environmentalist."